Hello everyone, ici Lackster.

There has been multiple ways to approach initiative so far: rolled or static (with or without bonuses) , group or individual, with or without surprise, roll each round vs roll for the whole encounter, exchangeable between players… There is even popcorn initiative, where the player who initiates the combat starts first, then decides who goes next that hasn’t acted yet. Fun stuff !

Each variant has their pros and cons. Rolled is more chaotic, therefore can be an engaging puzzle to solve, but the calculations can break the tension of the narrative. Static can get stale, but also opens more planning and rewards character investment. In group initiative, where the players can decide dynamically who goes first in their group each time, but that also takes time. There are methods to make it faster, like ”You’re on deck” or “You’ve got 30 seconds or take the Dodge Action”.

Today I want to talk about rotating initiative: at the start of the game, pick someone arbitrarily (youngest player for example). They get the token. For the rest of the game, after each action in combat, the player passes the token to the next person. It’s O(1) complexity, you just get straight to the action each time. You know who gets to act before the encounter even starts, and the turn order without any calculation. Sweet! There are, however, major drawbacks:

• Keeping track of the token action by action
• Keeping track of the token’s last position at the end of combat, or a session
• Fixed turn order, forever, regardless of class identity can limit player expression.

But I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of rigid rotating turn orders. They’re used a lot in board games, because I think board games solve the major issues cited above:

• The turn order is a core rule of the game. Nobody ever forgets about their turn in a game they want to play. The turn order IS the game.
• Most board games play on a one shot format, and if they don’t, it’s not that big of a hurdle to remember whose turn it was last time if it’s meaningful to the balance of the game
• There is rarely class identity to the point of ruling initiative in board games. Initiative is really OP in most competitive board games, the good ones try really hard to alleviate the power of going first creatively.

While working on Elusio, a 17th century TTRPG where your group is tasked by your community to protect what’s left of the Imaginary from the rising Powers of modernity, I realized that this system might be the solution for me. Class identity isn’t the focus of the game because it’s all about the collective, not the individual. I was experimenting on a way to track XP on every action of the group, and make them feel like they all participated equally, and it hit me: What about a game where the token stays, even out of combat, to track xp on meaningful rolls? Each time a PC rolls something that moves the plot forward (which should be the standard for rolling anyway), they pass the token. when the token comes back to the first player, that means everyone contributed equally to moving the plot forward: it’s 1 group XP. Great !

In that regard, playing The Quiet Year was a revelation for me: you really learn on how to respect other people’s decisions when it’s not your turn (ie: if you don’t have the token), even if the consequences are always collective. and it makes for great non-heroic, gray fiction, which is explicitly what I’m aiming at with Elusio.

I’m still fine with the intelligent pc of the group giving their reasoning in fiction to another character to assist a decision. But there is no “face” of the party, or intelligent “optimal course of action” whisperer: everyone gets to the decide equally, and we deal with the consequences as a group. You can still make as many skill checks as you want without the token to assist a task ! but 1. you won’t get XP for it if you don’t have the token (I’ll explain in a sec), and 2. you won’t get the final word on that negotiation with the dragon, the picking of the lock or the intimidation of the guard. There are ways to give up your token action to somebody (but still gain the xp). There are ways to assist someone less proficient in a specific task (Help action, Support check, In-character talking). But it’s still a support skill check. You’ll get to decide the fate of the adventure in due time, but not right now.

Each time there is a meaningful skill check done by the token holder, following things happen:

• Regardless of the result, they pass the token to the next player
• If they fail, they can mark for xp. At the end of the adventure, they have a chance to level up that skill, à la CoC.
• If they decided that another player should make the check instead, they can do so. proceed as normal (token doesn’t go to the other player), but if the skill check fails, the token holder marks for xp on the skill used by the other player.
• In combat, hostile creatures and NPCs act between player turn.

There are still problems on top of my head:

• people can manipulate the token, ask for the token, hoard the token. But then again, Ritualization of the token and mutual respect should be enough to address this behavior. If the group can’t do it, I’d argue that it’s a strong sign this game isn’t the right one for them.
• The people that engage the encounter through meaningful action (thus passing the token) are the last one to act, and that can be awkward. I don’t think it’s too bad: we can say they are focusing on interacting with the hostile environment while the others are ready to pounce.

But I think it might work specifically for my game, because:

• In Elusio, combat is secondary: most of the rpg is about negotiation & hiding things from stronger forces. Rotating fixed initiative doesn’t allow fast or slow actions, double actions, movement actions, repositioning… but we don’t need all that ! We’re not an Heroic, Tactical, Cinematic Fantasy RPG, and that's ok ;)
• It’s a game about being a group representing a community with a shared and equal voice. The token symbolizes that. Just like board games, people hopefully won’t ever be surprised about their turn: it’s a core mechanic of the game, not just a ruling of “who goes when” when things go south.
• Group XP makes sense now. 1 complete rotation of the token = 1 group xp, where everyone is guaranteed to have contributed equally. No calculations, no xp tables, no milestone leveling. No “I did ALL the heavy lifting today but everyone gets the reward!” from the Bard. Just players having to keep track (themselves, which may even be the best part !!) of their shared experience as a team. Neat !

Thank you for reading!

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You can find the original post and its discussion on r/RPGDesign here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/191wxgf/in_defense_of_rotating_fixed...